Begun Chirer Pulao -- Brinjal n Poha Pulao

I really don't love eggplants all that much. I like okra way better than eggplant. But you wouldn't know that. I have only one single okra post in all these years and several eggplant ones. In fact the frequency with which I am posting eggplant dishes you would think that is all we eat at home. But that is as far removed from the truth as is the earth from the moon or as is me from reality.

The reality is we do eat eggplants more than okra, for one it is easier to chop and cook and does well in mass production and everyone adores it. But not me or BS. I do not love eggplant more than okra. BS does not love anything but her little sis.

But this dish, the "Begun Chirer Pulao" is different. It is a very new thing, which I have never heard or had before. My Ma with her genius and her repertoire made this some weeks back. She says she got it from a book. Whoever was invited for lunch that day "oohed" and "aaahed" over it. The husband liked it a lot. In short this dish got so much recognition that every thing else paled in comparison. Now these are words I can rarely say about 90% of the other recipes I have posted in all these years.

So you see this is important. For one it is a very novel dish and Bengalis love novelty as long as it is not octopus in tamarind sauce. They love trying out new dishes if it is Bengali, Indo-Chinese, Thai, and maybe Moroccan, ok not Moroccan but might be. So because of the newness and the ease of cooking and the taste this dish is a big winner. I made it again over the weekend for some friends. Everyone suitably "oohed" and "aahed", and acted surprised, because who would have thought of cooking eggplant/brinjal with poha, really.


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Begun Chirer Pulao -- Brinjal n Poha Pulao

Suggested Oil: Mustard Oil. If Not: Canola or Peanut Oil Never: Olive Oil

Serves 5-6 adults as a side dish

Chop 2 medium sized eggplants in thick slices. Soak in water with little salt for half an hour OR if you are running out of time just wash them well. Remove from water and sprinkle turmeric powder and salt on the slices and let them rest for 15-20 minutes.

Heat oil and deep fry the eggplant slices. They should be almost like 99.5% cooked at the end of this and taste totally yum with some dal and rice. But NO you cannot eat them because the universe is waiting for your Begun Pulao and you must give them that.

Now take 1 cup of Poha (or Beaten Rice) and fry them crisp in oil. IF you are not my Mom and you are like me and you like to pretend that you do not like deep frying toss the 1 cup of Poha with droplets of oil and arrange them in a single layer on a baking tray. Put in the oven at 350F till the poha turns crisp.

Heat some more oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Temper the oil with
1/4 tsp of Hing/Asafoetidia,
2-3 small Bay Leaves
and 5-6 small green Indian chili that have been slit.

While the oil heats, in a bowl add 1/2 cup of thick yogurt and beat. To it add
2 tsp of ginger paste,
1/2 tsp of Kashmiri mirch,
1/2 tsp of Red Chili powder(optional),
1/4 tsp of turmeric powder,
a little sugar and mix well.

Switch off the heat and wait for a minute. Add the yogurt to the pan and mix. Put it back on low heat after one more minute. When you see the oil seeping out of the side of the masala add about 1 cup of water. Add salt to taste and let the gravy come to a boil. Add the fried eggplants and mix gently so that the eggplants are well coated with the masala. Let it simmer till the gravy is thickened. Note: If you have a fear of yogurt curdling add a tsp of besan or gram flour to the yogurt and mix well so that there are no lumps. Now add everything else to the yogurt and add it to the pan

Add the fried/roasted crisp Poha and mix with the eggplants.

Sprinkle 1 tsp of Garam Masala powder on top and serve. Goes well with Rice or Roti. Tastes best when served in a couple of hours time or at least same day.

Moroccan Lentil & Carrot Soup -- Indianized

Sometimes I feel I am the right parent at the wrong age or maybe the wrong parent at the right age. At least never the right parent at the right age.

I am so archaic in comparison to the new age hip parents that sometimes I feel I should have paid heed to the ever well wishing relatives, you know the ones who wanted me to get married young and have kids early and keep a fast every alternate Saturday. If I had my kids really really early, early as in right after ummm high school, I might have aimed for grand kids now and then I could at least be the cool grandma instead of the uncool Mom.

Why did such wisdom dawn so late, you might ask. Well because it was only last week that I came to know of TogetherVille, a social networking site for kids under 10. I didn't even know the terms "social networking" and "kids under 10" can be uttered in the same breath.But apparently teeny-tiny kids need a social network and right after school these teeny-weeny kids need to jump onto the internet to connect to friends over the internet and discuss social life and maybe exchange vacation photos and show off Dad's new Mercedes. It is all very safe and protected and Moms/Dads who need to be on FB for their kids to be on Togetherville are raving about it.

Me? I said, I am old. I think the best way for my kid to "social network" is hop across to a friend's place. Naturally, by just going out of the door and knocking on the neighbor's door if you have a neighbor like mine or premeditated, with some effort on the parent's part, by setting up a time&date for play with friends not exactly next door. But definitely NOT online.

I think kids need to play with friends in real, they need to just go and get some un-organized play, not necessarily a sport, in a jumping-hopping-little pushing-running way. That is how they connect if needed after school, where I am guessing a lot of "social mingling" should get done.

But why would a 6 or a 7 or a 8 year old need to connect to someone, anyone ONLINE ? For the life of me, I am unable to understand this whole Togetherville thing. How uncool of me. How deprived my kids are. And on top of this I make them eat Moroccan Carrot Soup. Yikes !!!

And honestly I have nothing against Mark Zuckenburg or Mandeep Dhillon or Pope Benedict except admiration and a tad envy. I even think Zuckenburg is cute if anyone is hearing.

We have a big bunch of carrots at home, thanks to organic carrots becoming easily available in our price club. This time it was too much though, way too much carrots to anyone's liking. So, I decided to make a carrot soup and most sounded like bleah until I chanced upon this one. The "Moroccan" did it for me. I also added some Lentils, because I love them. I love lentils so much that if given a free reign I will put them in pretty much everything, even dessert. Ok not dessert because I love my dessert more dearly than the lentil.

I also added Garam Masala and Green Chili and did everything to make it the most Indian Moroccan Carrot lentil Soup ever.Morocco are you listening, next time please can you include Garam masala and Green Chili and some Paanch Phoron in your cuisine ? Please, pretty please, I love your food.


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Adapted from this recipe

Moroccan Carrot & Lentil Soup

Heat 1 tbsp of Olive Oil

Add 1 cup of finely chopped red onions and saute till they are soft. Add 2-3 cloves of garlic minced

Add 2 cups of thick slices of carrot and saute till the carrots start browning a wee bit.

Add about 3 tomatoes from a can of whole peeled tomatoes or use 2 medium fresh juicy tomatoes chopped. Saute the tomatoes till they are mushed up and there is no raw smell.

Wash and add 1 cup of brown lentils. Mix everything well together and add about 3-4 cups of water.

Add about 1 tsp of Garam Masala Powder, salt to taste and cover and cook.

In 20-25 minutes the lentils and carrots should be done. Add 1 tsp of honey and mix well. Adjust for seasonings.

Cool and puree in a blender with 2 green chili. Ok, chili is optional. When you puree, save 1/4 of the soup sans the carrots in the pot. Put back the blended soup back in the pot and simmer at low heat.

Dry roast 1 tsp of cumin in a skillet till fragrant and grind to a fine powder. Add this roasted cumin powder and 1 tsp of Paprika to the blended soup. You can add 1 tsp of Lime Juice if you want, I didn't.

Ladle the soup in bowls and serve the soup with a dollop of yogurt.

For a carby version, tear a slice of wheat bread and toss with olive oil, roughly chopped garlic, salt and pepper. Toast in the oven till crisp. Dunk in the soup.

Paurutir Dohi Vada -- Bread Dahi Vada

Paurutir Doi Bora | Bread Dahi Vada

Made with soft white breads and thick yogurt, this faux Dahi Vada or Bengali Doi Bora is a quick snack, the ones that you can make while chatting with your guests. It is good that is quick, for it needs to be devoured as soon as you make it and does not stand well if served later.

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A large chunk of my growing up years have been spent in small town India. Small towns, small buildings, narrow roads, greener trees, wider skies and smiling people. This town I am talking about was so small that it did not even have an air-conditioned restaurant or a public movie hall. The township had a movie club and showed 4 showings of the same movie each week. Every family got two passes each week, 8 for the month and you went and saw whatever movie they played that week. By you, I mean only the adults, no one thought kids needed to watch movies and so there were no passes for the kids. 

Did we feel we were missing something ? No, nothing that I can think of. 

I remember seeing "Mr.Natwarlal" after the final exams, sharing a seat with a friend when my Mother lend me her pass after the exams and I don't think it was a movie worth remembering if not for the rarity of the situation. 

Though the town had no decent restaurant, it boasted of a very delicious sweet shop. The shop was nondescript with its thatched roof sitting limply on sturdy bamboo poles, rickety benches and tables where the flies made merry and grubby glass counters displaying the sweets. The owner and also the sweet maker aka pastry chef, however had a character. He was rotund, with white walrus seal mustache and sat stirring the milk down to khoa so happy and contented that he personified the sweet shop. And his products were to die for. If I close my eyes I can still imagine how good his lyangcha and cream chop was and it has been two decades since I have tasted them.

 

Now this post is not about the movie hall nor the sweet shop. I digress. It is about the small town though, where neighbors dropped in without making an appointment a month early and my Ma happily entertained them without thinking her time was being wasted. 

She enjoyed making a quick snack on such occasions and a very popular one was the Paurutir Doi Vada or Bread Dahi Vada. Made with soft white breads and thick yogurt, it was a quick snack, the ones that you can make while chatting with your guests. It is good that is quick, for it needs to be devoured as soon as you make it and does not stand well if served later. My Ma says, this recipe is from my Dida(my Mom's mom) who in turn had got it from a now defunct Bengali magazine called "Amrito". I am sure there must be other versions of it around but this is my Ma's or my Dida's or maybe the now defunct Amrito's or someone who raked her very creative brains to make her family eat bread long long time ago... Though my Ma insists that I use ONLY WHITE BREAD for this dish, and that is how it tastes best, I have stuck to my guns and used WHOLE WHEAT BREAD. If you have white bread, do use that as the vadas are crispier that way.